LEARNING: Teaching and learning

Young adults demonstrate physics for students in elementary school

Laurel L. Scott

2:56 PM, Nov 19, 2012

PHOTOS BY Patrick Dove/Standard-Times
Alta Loma Elementary fifth-graders Dyani Salas (from left), Lucia Munoz and Matthew Marroquin work with Angelo State University physics major David To on a project about conductivity and circuits. Several Angelo State students participate in the Alta Loma Peers Helping the Advancement of Science (ALPHAS) to help promote interest in science at the school.

An electric current is run through a pickle to show that the juices act as a conductor during a class demonstration at Alta Loma Elementary School in San Angelo.

For the 20 third-graders in Kristen Shirley's science class at Alta Loma Elementary School, the young adults in black T-shirts who take over the classroom every other Friday have become an anticipated treat.

"The kids love it," Shirley said. "It motivates them to do the labs we do in class. It motivates them to complete their work before the Friday."

The black T-shirts are emblazoned with the logo of the Peer Pressure Team, a group made up of members of Angelo State University's chapter of the Society of Physics Students.

The award-winning Peer Pressure Team has long been known for its stage-show-style science presentation, full of flash and bang and the "magic" of physics.

This year, Hardin Dunham, an assistant professor of physics and the SPS faculty sponsor, launched a pilot project with Alta Loma called ALPHAS (Alta Loma Peers Helping the Advancement of Science) to see if the ASU students could measurably increase the schoolchildren's science test scores.

"I teach a class in advanced physical science, basically teaching new teachers how to teach science," said Dunham, who is married to Alta Loma second-grade teacher Angela Dunham. "We've always done a measurement of our outreach. I wanted to see a real impact on our outreach if we do this for a year."

Unlike the Peer Pressure Team's show, the ALPHAS program will continue through the school year, with the ASU students visiting the Alta Loma science classes about every other Friday.

"We plan and we correlate my lesson with their supplies," Shirley said. "Being able to plan with Dr. Dunham, too, it helps me to meet our state standards. All of their lessons correlate with the state standards along with the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills)."

Dunham said the ASU students are unpaid volunteers and don't even get course credit for their participation.

"As members of a professional organization, one of the responsibilities is the good citizenship factor," he said. "For them, this is teaching them to be good science citizens."

David Bixler, head of ASU's Physics and Geosciences Department, said students who get involved are students who end up graduating.

"There's nothing to make you learn like trying to teach it to someone else, especially to teach it to little kids who may not have the vocabulary to understand it," he said.

At one of the Friday lessons, Dunham asked the third-graders, "What is energy?"

A few hands rose and a child answered, "So you can run fast and play."

"It's all a bunch of different types of motion. It all takes energy," he said.

He and six ASU students then began to introduce the children to simple machines — levers, wedges, screws, pulleys, wheels and axles — a lesson in mechanical energy.

In Sherry Hall's fifth-grade classroom, more ASU students helped the students use light ray boxes, lenses and mirrors to understand the reflection and refraction qualities of light.

"This is the kind of activities that we can do because we have ray boxes and lasers and the lenses," Dunham said.

A single light ray box costs $150.

"We do it all semester long and the students at ASU need it to train to do it professionally," he said. "The schools only need it for a week of lessons, maybe a day, and can't justify the cost."

Hall said the children love working with the ASU students.

"These guys are young and they're cool and they're smart and these kids see the potential to be young and cool and smart," the science teacher said. "We so appreciate the partnership. It's amazing for the kids. What they learn in the classroom, they're able to apply with the physics students. They get a hands-on experience with more tools than we have."

Ben Huffman, an ASU senior, is a member of the Peer Pressure Team and has participated in many of the big shows.

"Usually you have hundreds of kids instead of just four at a time, but this is a lot better because you're able to really explain it to them," he said.

Shirley said positive results are already showing up.

"They took a pre-assessment and they did a post-assessment last week," Shirley said. "At the end of the six weeks, grades had improved quite a bit."

She said the ASU students' participation meant more than test scores to the children.

"You all don't know the impact you have on them," Shirley said. "There's not a lot of males in teaching, and a lot of them don't have those figures at home and all these males (ASU students) really make a difference."